Mexico Prisons

Five Mexican inmates arrested after a prison riot last week identified themselves in a television videotape, but they were later listed among the dead. A judicial official in the state of Nayarit confirmed that the prisoners are now dead and said he did not know how they could have died in custody. Officials said the death toll in the two-day uprising was 23, with 19 of the deaths occurring Friday night during two assaults by police.

MEXICO CITY - A group of armed men posing as public servants talked their way into a prison in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero early Friday and unleashed a bloody attack on inmates and guards, according to the state prosecutor's office. At least nine people were killed in the assault and the ensuing shootout with prison guards. The attack occurred in the city of Iguala, about halfway between Mexico City and the Pacific Coast resorts of Acapulco. It came less than two months after Mexico's national human rights commission issued a report that detailed the wretched state of the country's penal system, noting that 65 of the nation's 101 most crowded prisons are effectively under inmate control.

At least five inmates were killed and five injured in a second spate of rioting this month at a Mexican prison just south of the U.S. border, a newspaper reported Wednesday. Violence broke out Tuesday night, and one person reportedly was decapitated, La Cronica said. Officials refused to comment. The rioting may have been sparked by a feud among prisoners. Three people were injured in rioting at the prison June 6, and a standoff lasted until June 15.

It seemed a run-of-the-mill prison riot, though one that left 44 inmates beaten or knifed to death. In fact, the violence on Sunday in northern Mexico served as cover for a massive jailbreak by members of the country's deadliest criminal gang, the Zetas. Authorities on Monday revealed that 30 Zetas henchmen escaped from the maximum-security prison in Apodaca during the brawl - with the apparent complicity of guards and possibly other top officials. The deadly violence underscored the abysmal condition of Mexican prisons, which are woefully overcrowded, rife with corruption and prone to high-profile escapes.

A prison security chief and six guards have been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from inmates to smuggle in guns used during a prison uprising that left 25 dead, a state official said Wednesday. Hector Ramon Martinez Roman was arrested when officials went to his home and found him packing a suitcase, Nayarit state spokesman Francisco Flores said. Flores said officials believe the Venustiano Carranza penitentiary security chief accepted about $4,300 from inmates to smuggle the guns.

Prison guards found a tunnel dug by hand and equipped with electric lights after discovering evidence of an escape plot. The tunnel, found Friday under the Penitentiary of New Mexico, begins in a crawl space under the building, drops 12 feet, then extends 25 feet toward a prison wall, a Corrections Department spokesman said.

At least 20 inmates were killed and 12 injured in rioting Saturday at a prison that houses members of drug gangs in the violent border city of Matamoros, authorities said. Fighting broke out between two inmates, the Tamaulipas state government's public security office said in a statement, and soon dozens more piled on. Federal and state police were summoned to help guards restore order at the prison, the statement said. News video showed helicopters hovering over the gray watchtower of the prison.

Four journalists with Mexican news organizations remained missing Wednesday, two days after they were kidnapped in northern Mexico after covering disturbances at a troubled prison. The seizure of the journalists, representing two broadcasters and a newspaper, appeared to have been aimed at manipulating media coverage of drug gangs that are battling in the violence-plagued states of Durango and Coahuila. It was not immediately clear who carried out the kidnappings, though journalists said it probably was a trafficking group based in the state of Sinaloa that is said to hold sway at the Durango prison.

It seemed a run-of-the-mill prison riot, though one that left 44 inmates beaten or knifed to death. In fact, the violence on Sunday in northern Mexico served as cover for a massive jailbreak by members of the country's deadliest criminal gang, the Zetas. Authorities on Monday revealed that 30 Zetas henchmen escaped from the maximum-security prison in Apodaca during the brawl - with the apparent complicity of guards and possibly other top officials. The deadly violence underscored the abysmal condition of Mexican prisons, which are woefully overcrowded, rife with corruption and prone to high-profile escapes.

When the Mexican Federal Judicial Police converged on Kenneth Erickson in the lobby of a Mexico City hotel last September, he was surprised but not overly concerned. For the previous eight months, Erickson had been working under cover for the U.S. government, masquerading as a member of an international drug ring while feeding information to federal agents. His friends at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S.

At least 20 inmates were killed and 12 injured in rioting Saturday at a prison that houses members of drug gangs in the violent border city of Matamoros, authorities said. Fighting broke out between two inmates, the Tamaulipas state government's public security office said in a statement, and soon dozens more piled on. Federal and state police were summoned to help guards restore order at the prison, the statement said. News video showed helicopters hovering over the gray watchtower of the prison.

Four journalists with Mexican news organizations remained missing Wednesday, two days after they were kidnapped in northern Mexico after covering disturbances at a troubled prison. The seizure of the journalists, representing two broadcasters and a newspaper, appeared to have been aimed at manipulating media coverage of drug gangs that are battling in the violence-plagued states of Durango and Coahuila. It was not immediately clear who carried out the kidnappings, though journalists said it probably was a trafficking group based in the state of Sinaloa that is said to hold sway at the Durango prison.

Six men were found blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death Thursday after they left their night-shift jobs at a federal penitentiary in what Mexican officials called a brazen new challenge by jailed drug lords to government control of the nation's prisons.

Twelve prisoners died and five were wounded in the city of Los Mochis as two gangs of inmates battled for control of the main prison, authorities said. A government statement from Los Mochis in Sinaloa state said the turf war began when one prisoner allegedly killed another and the dead man's friends sought revenge. It took authorities 90 minutes to suppress the violence. Los Mochis is about 750 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Joseph (Frank) Goffaux got so cold in his cramped and filthy Tijuana jail cell that he rented a blanket from another prisoner for $3.33. He went without a shower and slept in the same clothes for 13 days, at times squeezing into a bunk bed with two other men. Inside the Public State Prison, he traded jokes with murderers. "That's how they opened up the conversation," Goffaux joked. "The first thing they asked was who did I kill." He can joke about it now.

At least five inmates were killed and five injured in a second spate of rioting this month at a Mexican prison just south of the U.S. border, a newspaper reported Wednesday. Violence broke out Tuesday night, and one person reportedly was decapitated, La Cronica said. Officials refused to comment. The rioting may have been sparked by a feud among prisoners. Three people were injured in rioting at the prison June 6, and a standoff lasted until June 15.

At least 15 inmates were killed and 10 wounded in a riot sparked by gang warfare at a prison near Mexico City on Tuesday, officials said. "This morning at 9:35 a.m., a violent clash took place between prisoners . . . at the Almoloya de Juarez Social Readaptation Center," the state of Mexico said in a statement. Eleven of the dead were known to be inmates, and the identities of the others could not immediately be determined.